New banner flies high on Anzac Day

By JANICE HARRIS

March 20, 2013, 4 a.m.

IN TIME FOR ANZAC DAY: Commanding Officer of the 1/19th Battalion Royal NSW Regiment Lieutenant Colonel Terry Betts and acting Regimental Sergeant Major David Lester proudly display the new banner for Anzac Day to RSL Orange sub-branch President Brian Merchant and Anzac Day committee chairman Graeme Scott. Photo: STEVE GOSCH 0319sgbanner1

A NEW banner will be held high at the Anzac Day march this year, giving serving Australian Defence Force personnel, or men and women who have served in Australia or overseas since 1975, an opportunity to march behind a banner.

The banner was the brainchild of Lieutenant Colonel Terry Betts, the commanding officer of the 1/19th Battalion, “Bushman’s Rifles” at Romani Barracks.

“We started talking to the RSL about this three years ago and now it’s finally come to fruition,” he said.

Lieutenant Colonel Betts said he had become aware there were people in the community who could not connect with a battalion banner on Anzac Day as there was not one in Orange.

“This means that anyone who is serving or has served with the Army, Navy or Air Force now has a banner to march behind,”he said.

Lieutenant Colonel Betts said he was pleased the banner had arrived, several weeks before Anzac Day, to give people in Orange time to let family members or friends know there was a banner for current or former personnel to march behind on Anzac Day.

“We understand there probably won’t be a lot of people marching behind this banner for the first year, but we hope the numbers will grow,” he said.

Lieutenant Colonel Betts said the banner was funded and approved by the RSL Orange sub-branch, in conjunction with the RSL Trust, Orange Ex-Services Club and the Vietnam Veterans Association.

Plans have been finalised for this year’s Anzac Day march on April 25, beginning with the Dawn Service, officiated by Salvation Army Captain Greg Saunders.